Chapters 1-2 Summary

This novel was written in the seventies, a short time after the Bay of Pigs scare that left many Americans afraid of a nuclear attack. This novel takes place some years after a week long war that left most of the country devastated not only by nuclear fallout, but also nerve gases and other biological weapons.

In Chapter 1, Ann Burden can see smoke in the distance. This convinces Ann that someone is coming toward her small valley. Ann has been alone in her valley since shortly after the war. Ann's family and the couple who ran the general store took a truck and went outside the valley to learn what has happened. They never came back, leaving Ann alone in the valley, a valley almost completely untouched by the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons used against the United States in a...